Need for Speed: Carbon
Need for Speed: Carbon is the 10th video game in the Need for Speed series. The game reintroduces night driving and features a large quantity of customization options like in Underground 2. =Plot= thumb|right|150px|Need for Speed: Carbon trailer. The player has a flashback to a race on the night they left Palmont City whilst driving through Carbon Canyon. Cross suddenly slams into the back of the player's BMW M3 GTR. It is revealed that Cross was fired from the Rockport Police Department for letting the player escape. Cross has now became a bounty hunter and his first bounty is the player. The player crashes their M3 GTR into a truck whilst attempting to escape Cross. Cross apprehends the player before they can get out of their car but another character known as Darius arrives in an Audi Quattro Le Mans. Darius is the leader of the most powerful crew in the game - Stacked Deck. Darius tells Cross to leave as he will 'deal with you'. In the background another character known as Nikki arrives in her Ford GT. Nikki is revealed as the player's ex-girlfriend. The last time Nikki saw the player was in the race against the main crew leaders of the city. She was meant to give a bag of money to the winner but the race was interrupted by the PCPD during the closing straight. The player attempts to save Nikki but she is dragged away whilst she throws the money into the player's car. The only person to get out without being arrested is the player. Nikki hates the player for what happened on that night and is now a main member of Darius' crew. She agrees to help the player start up their own crew in the city after instructions from Darius. Darius wants the player to help him remove all the other racing gangs in the city for Stacked Deck. The player is given a car and a short tutorial. Darius tells the player to meet him at the City Courthouse after owning 3 of the 4 city district. Darius instructs Cross to arrest the player once they meet with him. Although Nikki pays the bounty to Cross after Darius leaves. Part of the arrangement is that Nikki races with the player. Nikki has also realized that the person who stole the bag of money, tipped off the cops to the race and only allowed the player to leave the ambush was Darius. The player must race Angie, Kenji and Wolf in their new cars after owning the Stacked Deck territory. The player must race against them in the City and on a Canyon. The player is then allowed to face Darius after beating the combined efforts of the previous crew leaders. Darius hands over his Audi R8 Lemans Quattro to the player and then leaves Palmont in a Stacked Deck Jaguar XK after being beaten by the player. Notable Characters Protagonists *Player *Nikki *Neville *Sal *Samson *Yumi *Colin Antagonists *Darius *Wolf *Kenji *Angie *Any TFK member *Any Bushido Member *Any 21st Street Crew Member *Any other minor crews =Gameplay= Need for Speed: Carbon uses the same EAGL game engine used in Most Wanted except has been slightly modified. The gameplay basically hardly differs from previous titles although Carbon also introduces a handful of new game features. Carbon takes place at night both in and around the fictional Palmont City which is split into four large districts. Each of these precincts has a unique setting. Career Mode The career mode in Carbon greatly differs from previous titles. Players have the goal of taking over a metropolis called Palmont City with the help of their racing crew. Territories of Palmont City are acquired by four major crews as well as several smaller ones. Players need to challenge one of the bosses of the main gangs in the city in order to take over a whole district. Crews Besides the four major crews appearing in Carbon, the player will also encounter smaller gangs, that will randomly attack the player's and major crew's territories. Reward Cards By beating a crew boss players receive reward cards (known as Boss Bonus Cards) like in Most Wanted. Now four cards with question marks appear with the last two featuring tuning upgrades. These question mark tagged cards include either the pink slip for the boss' car, coupons, additional credits and extra impound strike markers. These will be randomly selected and only two of these cards can be picked. Race Modes Any race mode listed below is selectable in both Career and Quick Race Mode. *Circuit *Sprint *Checkpoint Race - Players have to pass a series of checkpoint before time runs out. *Drift *Canyon Duel - Canyon duels see one racer gets chased by another. Winner is the racer that has kept up with their rival best. *Canyon Drift *Canyon Sprint *Pursuit Knockout - Players begin the circuit event as racers. The last person to pass the finish line in each lap is changed into a cop car. They must then stop the remaining racers from completing the event. *Pursuit Tag - One racer has to evade several cops. The racer becomes a cop once they have been busted by the cops. The best previously performing cop becomes the racer. The Pursuit Knockout and Pursuit Tag Modes are only available in multiplayer. Canyon Duels only appear in single-player. Challenge Series The Challenge Series in Carbon has been divded by difficulty and event type. Some events will reward the player with new vehicles for use in quick race and tuning parts. Free Roam Players are able to compete with AI street racers outside of race events. Players cannot start a race with these AI racer until one of them appears and stops near the player. These races are sprint races that can have their distance chosen by the player. AI racers don't freely cruise around like in Underground 2 but instead appear randomly and directly confront with the player. Pursuit Mode In general pursuits became relatively unimportant in Carbon. The pursuit system is exactly the same as in Most Wanted's version, though Helicopters were cut from the game. Bounty no longer plays a particular role in the game. =Cars= Carbon was the first game since Hot Pursuit 2 to divide cars into tiers and design classes. It is also the first Need for Speed installment to feature a large quantity of classic muscle cars. *Tier 1 - Low performance capabilities *Tier 2 - Moderate performance capabilities *Tier 3 - High performance capabilities *Exotic - Highest top speeds *Muscle - Fastest acceleration *Tuners - Best handling It is not possible for a player to equip any performance upgrades to increase a car's tier. Cars will only be competitive and gameplay balanced with other vehicles in the the same tier. Customization The customization system seen in Carbon is greatly improved compared to Most Wanted's. The garage can be filled up with seven cars independent of tier and design class. Performance Modifications Carbon allows the player to buy individual uning parts again. Before final purchase, players can directly fine-tune their new modification. Visual Modifcations The game is the first one in the series to use the Autosculpt feature. While players can still purchase bodykits, rims and rear spoilers for their vehicles, they also have the choice to buy single spoiler parts and modify them. Decals and vinyls can now be moved by the player and be put anywhere on a car. Some vinyls can also be modified in size and color. =Miscellaneous= Soundtrack Trivia *Need for Speed: Carbon is mainly inspired by the 2006 action movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. An important hint are the canyon duels which are strikingly similar to the final race in Tokyo Drift. *Need for Speed: Carbon re-imported the option for players to drive with a manual clutch. *There are some billboards and ads advertising the Mazda MX-5 although it is not included in the game. *The Tuner crew - Rotor 4 - utilises only tuner cars with a similar livery to that seen on the Mazda 787B. *Palmont's Downtown, Silverton, Fortuna and Kempton districts can be seen on the last leg of the final showdown against Darius in the "Eternity Pass" Canyon Duel event. *A police officer may consult dispatch about a street racer named Clarence Callahan due to the police dispatch audio being carried over from Need for Speed: Most Wanted. *Need for Speed: Carbon is the last Need for Speed title to be released for the Nintendo Gamecube and Original Xbox. It is also the last to support the Windows 2000 and Windows ME OS. *The Dodge Charger R/T is the longest car in the game. *This is the only game in the series to be released for MacOS X. *The Infiniti G35, Porsche 911 Turbo and Dodge Challenger are not available in the PS3, PS2, Gamecube & Wii versions. *All cars are available in Quick Race mode once the player reaches 100% completion. *The Wii version of Carbon has the most limitations of any console version. The IS 300, MR2 GT-S, Europa S, GT3 RS and Roadrunner are only available in their respective Challenge Series events and have no Reward Cards. There are also several locked aftermarket parts that are impossible to unlock. *Scattered around within Palmont City are a few intangible Auto Zone retailers, Castrol Oil garages and Mazda dealerships. *There is an additional district known as San Juan. This is a district used for tutorials at the beginning of the game and offers three races in Quick Race. It is not accessible in Free Roam in normal gameplay. Easter Eggs *Players can unlock a special Mazda RX-8 for use in Quick Race events by visiting and purchasing it from a Mazda Dealership found in the Billings District of Downtown Palmont. Category:Need for Speed Series Category:Games